Hello! We will be getting into riomaggiore July 15 and will have all day the 16 to explore. We will leave the morning of the 17th. Do we need to buy the CT card I’m reading about? I read you do if you hike the “blue trail” but that that can get very crowded and many parts are closed and there are better trails that are free and less crowded. Does anyone have experience with this?
Posted by
Seattle area
29 posts
Hello, yeah I think it would depend on which trails that you would like to use. There are many that don't require a pass, and like you say are likely less crowded. It looks like there are some recent trip reports here, on alltrails site - link . Here's the park site with trail info - link . When I was in that area last spring, I did the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso (I was there late enough in the day to not need a pass). It was great but challenging too. I did some other lesser known trails that were nice as well.
Posted by
Miami
338 posts
I was just there for 2.5 days. I only did one hike between towns, from Monterosso to Vernazza on 4/16. A few minutes into the hike there was a booth where I had to pay 7.50 euros for access to the trails for the day or I could pay 19.50 and have the trails and unlimited train rides between the towns for the day.
I started at about 9am and it wasn’t at all crowded, the first hour or so I only crossed two groups. Towards the end, as I was reaching Vernazza, I started crossing groups more frequently but it wasn’t bad at all.
The card is a good deal if you ride the trains often. Each train ride is 5.00, so if you ride it 4 times it’s worth it. With the card, you don’t have to buy train tickets at the stations, and the stations get very crowded, so it’s nice to just have it.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16624 posts
The card is a good deal if you ride the trains often. Each train ride
is 5.00, so if you ride it 4 times it’s worth it. With the card, you
don’t have to buy train tickets at the stations,
That price rises to 10,00€ on busy-season weekends, and can be between 10,00€ and 8,00€ during holiday periods such as dates on and both sides of May 1 (Labor Day, a big national holiday). The price of a Treno card also fluctuates depending on low-to-high park attendance periods. For instance, the card for use on May weekends will cost more than mid-week, holidays aside, and higher seasons will cost more than low season.